At 7 am the next day, Jessica, bored out of her mind and too tired to think about much of anything, knocked on the door of who she believed to be her brother.

“Come in,” she heard his voice politely urge as if she was some sort of visitor in his home. Somewhat anxious, she entered the room. Inside, she found the stubbled, tired-looking man sitting on the bed, a couple of small books with angels on them scattered around him. He looked really tired, perhaps even more tired than she was.

“It’s morning and, uh, we gotta go to school, apparently,” Jessica said, shooting a somewhat angry glance behind her, most likely directed at the oblivious John. If she hadn’t been as tired as she was, she might have had a full-blown tantrum, but, by God, she couldn’t bother. So, instead, here she was, at 7 in the morning, “waking” her brother up. Apparently, he hadn’t slept either. Is this the cost of getting up at a sensible time? Not sleeping at all?...

“School? What’s… oh, right, it’s like an academy but for children, right?” Adam asked, his face, despite how tired he looked, lighting up a little. Jessica frowned. Oh, right, he was like this.

“Yes, I guess it is, um, we should get ready?” Jessica half-asked, holding out both her hands and waving them about the door in a “come through this” sort of motion. Adam didn’t seem to understand.

“Why?” he asked.

Adam, according to himself, had no need for academic training of any sort. He had seen what the most pristine of Magick Academies back on Lutum had to offer, and what he had not invented himself, he had already read about in various academic writings. Sure, there were definitively things he didn’t know in regards to Magick, but nobody else knew those things either, so, in terms of human knowledge, he stood at the very top. Why should he go to some sort of academy, and one made for children, to make matters worse?

Jessica realized immediately that she had to go about this with a more subtle hand than “because papa said so” so, she thought for a moment. Thinking was in no way Jessica’s forte, but it wasn’t exactly her piano either.

“...Have you finished those Mango books?...”

“Yeah?”

“And you borrowed them from Pete?”

“...Yeah?”

“You do know that, if you want to read the rest, you’ll have to borrow them from him, right?” Jessica argued, revelling in how Adam’s face lit up in realization.

“Oh!” he exclaimed as he hit his fist on his open palm.

“So, to be able to read more about Angel What’s-his-name, I’ll have to borrow books from Pete, and Pete will be at the mini-academy, so I should go to have a reason to be there, is that what you’re saying?” Adam asked, recounting Jessica’s points.

“Yes?...” she affirmed, briefly wondering if he was planning on rebuking her argument or something un-Adamly like that.

“I’m in,” Adam said with a smirk, standing up and straightening himself out to his full height, which really was quite tall. Jessica didn’t like Adam being taller than her. It had been the one thing she had that he didn’t. But that wasn’t important. Retreating back out into the corridor behind her, she laid notice to the fact that Adam was still wearing the same all-black things he had been yesterday.

“You gotta wear your uniform, you know?” Jessica said, pointing to the black-and-white uniform she wore. There really was no need for it to be black-and-white, and, if anything, it just made upkeep a horrible drag, but… the headmaster had insisted, so there wasn’t much of a choice.

Adam furrowed his brows at her as if the idea of a uniform had never passed his mind. And, mind you, this was the same teen who had gone apeshit when Jessica made a few modifications of her uniform, namely making the skirt even shorter than it already was, and tying the scarf like a tie instead of the standard bow. Much like his room indicated, Adam was something of a neat-freak. Well, apparently… he used to be.

“...It’s in the wardrobe, on your left,” Jessica sighed, pointing to the little minimalistic piece of black furniture. Adam lumbered up to it, stared at it for a few seconds, and turned back to Jessica.

“Do I open it by pulling or pushing?” he asked.

“...You can’t be serious…?” she asked, slumping over. Adam nodded, slightly ashamed.

“It’s… you just pull it,” she said, facepalming slowly. Adam nodded again, but this time, with conviction.

Adam knew that his body was strong. He could control it well enough, but he was still not quite used to it. So, he was pretty sure that if he had pushed the wardrobe when it was supposed to be pulled, he would have not only toppled it over, but also very likely put a hole in the wall behind it, and perhaps in the wall behind that as well. And if he could barely explain the current state of his body… well, he’d rather not explain why he suddenly had super-strength.

So, with the most care he could possibly put into it, he slowly pulled the door to the wardrobe open and peered inside. There were many hanging, already put-together outfits to choose from, most of them having a red or blue colour scheme, but two of the outfits were white and black. Yes, perfect. Pulling it out, Adam observed the piece of clothing closely. Sure, it would be a bit too small for him, but so were the clothes he was currently wearing, so it’d probably be alright.

Without much thought, Adam peeled off his hoodie and shirt and was just about to remove his pants when he realized he had a witness.

“Oh, yeah, you huma-, erm, people don’t like watching other people undress, right?” Adam asked Jessica, who was staring at him wide-eyed. A thought flashed across Adam’s mind, and he bent to look at his body, thinking he might have a tentacle or patch of green or something showing what he was. Nope, nothing. Just a rock-hard chest and eight-packed abdomen. Nothing much of interest.

“I-, uh-, I’ll be out in the hall,” Jessica said, covering up her reddening face by excusing herself from the room. Adam was left standing, confused and dazed. Maybe she had seen something, after all?... pondering whatever his sister could have meant by that, he put on the uniform without much thought. It really was quite tight, but it must have been quite loose on his original body since it wasn’t TOO tight. When Adam left his room, he found Jessica looking at her phone, her thumb flicking up and down, indicating that she was scrolling through some sort of feed. She glanced up at him.

He really looked nothing like the Adam she knew. He possessed a sort of rugged handsomeness that didn’t fit her view of Adam in the least, with his unshaven face and shaggy-dog hair, long and black it was. The uniform, which was usually quite loose on Adam (to his great irritation) was now a tight fit, showing off the lean, chiseled muscles he sported underneath. The white shirt was unbuttoned at the top, and he completely lacked the black-and-white tie that Pristine High was characterized by. Or, as Jessica and her less-than-upstanding friends called it, Peculiar High.

“...Where’s the tie?” Jessica mumbled, not really expecting Adam to hear her.

“Uh, you mean that long piece of cloth? I, uh… didn’t know what to do with it, so I left it. Also, the neck-y part on this chest cloth was way too tight, so I didn’t button it all the way up, that was alright, right?” Adam asked, a bit uncertain about this whole thing. He strangely enough felt a little nervous.

“Huh? Uh, yeah, sure, let’s go,” Jessica said, almost skipping down the stairs. John was sitting at the table, but unlike yesterday, he lacked his piece of toast, instead, he was just kind of… sitting there. Adam should probably have felt a bit bad at causing this heavy feeling of melancholy to pervade the house, but he was a little too giddy about finally returning home to feel properly ashamed. And, strangely enough, he was also feeling something else. He felt… tired. The bags under his eyes were no longer mere decorations, instead accurately proving just how he felt. For the first time in 600 years, not counting those couple of times he was about as near to death as a man could be, Adam felt like just going to sleep. Just… laying down and letting slumber claim him.

He wouldn’t, but the temptation was truly a beckoning one. Putting on a pair of black leather loafers, the two siblings left the house and made their way towards Pristine High at a slow, amiable pace. There was no need to run. And yet, the air felt tense. And it wasn’t just between Adam and Jessica, no, the whole town felt stale and rigid, as if it was holding its breath, uncertain of the future, only able to fear the worst.

Barely a soul was out and about. A school uniform would shuffle by here and a suited nine-to-five clockwork grinder would sneak on by there. Every now and then, Adam would glance over at Jessica, only to find her staring at some faraway spot or straight down into her phone. He felt a tad bit ignored, but until they reached his crime scene, he was unable to start any sort of conversation.

“So, they’ve still got the tape up, huh?” Adam observed, turning to Jessica who was staring at the scene. She didn’t respond. All she could do, and all she did, was stare at the blood-soaked spot where the white tape made out a silhouette of her unsaid trauma.

“Um, we’re going to have to take a different path, right? I, uh… I don’t really know the way, so if you’d just?...” Adam tried to barter, but before he could even finish, Jessica, brought out of her silence, had turned around and gone down another road. “Oh! Okay, uh, I don’t really recognize that road either, but, sure!” Adam said as he half-sprinted to catch up to her.

She still wasn’t saying anything. She seemed to be, if anything, in deep contemplation over something. Could he really stand this? She’d been fine just a few minutes ago, hadn’t she? So why was she-, how dare she act like this? To ignore an exalted being such as himse-, no. That was no way of thinking. That was how he used to think, right? He was different now.

Taking a deep breath, he veered around to stand in front of her, blocking her path. He made sure that she would notice his blockage since he really didn’t want her walking into him and making skin-to-skin contact.

“You-, what?” Jessica asked, grinding to a stop in front of him. There seemed to be hints of irritation in her voice, which was a good sign.

“Is there a reason you’ve been ignoring me?” Adam asked honestly. Jessica averted her eyes from his steady gaze.

“I, no, it’s just... “

“It’s just what, exactly?” Adam asked.

‘It’s just that I’m starting to doubt you’re Adam at all,’ but she couldn’t say that.

“Yesterday was a bit hectic, so, I think I’m still recovering,” Jessica lied. She hated lying like this, especially considering that she and Adam had a mutual, non-verbal agreement to never tell an outright lie to each other. But if her doubts were true, then it didn’t really matter, did it?...

Well, strangely enough, Adam had fully honoured this agreement so far. Obviously, only with her, and he was most likely not even aware of it himself, but nonetheless. The only lies he had told her so far were lies of omission. So for her to break her end of the agreement was unprecedented. Yet, neither was aware of this. Instead, Adam nodded solemnly, his guilt about the events of yesterday only growing.

“Alright, that’s understandable, I think, but… look, I’m júst going to come out and say it: I have no idea what to expect of this school place. I don’t… I don’t even know who’ll be there? Where I should go to? I don’t know any of that, but you do, so if you don’t the Czar to pour wine all over his lover’s chest, I suggest you maybe tell me what I’ll need to know,” Adam said, keeping stern eye-contact with his sister. She frowned slightly.

“Do you know where your homeroom is?” Jessica asked as she and Adam got back to walking once more side-by-side.

“Um, Mrs Windsley, what’s a homeroom?” Adam asked, pretending that Jessica was a teacher. Jessica grinned and puffed her chest out in faux arrogance.

“Why, dear student Adam, that’s where you’ll be sitting all day long, learning from the most exemplary and prestigious of teachers, of course! Have you not done your homework?” Jessica asked, pretending to be surprised and disappointed at the same time.

“Um, sadly, no,” Adam replied, acting as if he knew what homework was.

“Very well, I shall overlook this mistake for now. However, I expect your results on the exam to be exemplary in spite of this… minor mishap. Nevertheless, as I’m sure you’re aware, in about four hours, at 12 ‘o clock exactly, you will be summoned to the-, actually, you know what? I can’t keep this up, uhh, just eat lunch when the bell rings and get the fuck out of there when it rings a second time, okay?” Jessica explained, abandoning her silly lord-like voice halfway through. Adam nodded, not really understanding anything, but, if things went south, he could always ask Pete, right? He should be at the school, right?... Otherwise, what’s the point?...

“Oh, and it should go without mention that your homeroom is 221C, so just, like, look for that and you should be fine, okay? And, also, uh… don’t try to stand out too much, okay? You’ve got the name embroidered on the suit, and you’ve got your student id and all, but… if anybody questions you, just say it’s because of all the magical shit happening yesterday or something, okay?” Jessica explained as they entered the central part of town where Pristine High was located. As far as Adam could remember, there had been no mention of “his” death on the news, so people probably wouldn’t come to the conclusion that he murdered “Adam” and tried to steal his identity. If he was lucky, that is.

Soon enough, the Pristine high school came into view. It was a strangely medieval building, but apparently, all the towering spires and gaping, ornate entrances were just things that eccentric headmaster had demanded, and in reality, it was a rather modern building. “I’ll see you after school,” Jessica said, running off in a seemingly random direction, leaving Adam to just sort of stand there, looking at all the students entering. 221C… shouldn’t be that hard to find, right?

But it was.

He instantly got lost.